Lord Falconer of Thoroton: On the 25 May my department published a policy paper on electoral administration which seeks views on a number of issues relating to the way elections are run. My honourable friend the Minister of State Department for Constitutional Affairs, Harriet Harman has also written to all honourable Members enclosing a copy of the paper and inviting them to respond as part of the consultation process. Copies of the paper have also been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
	The paper seeks views on our proposals for changes to the administrative arrangements for elections, in particular on those which relate to postal voting and registration. We intend to implement these measures in time for the local elections due next May, so to meet the legislative timetable the time for responses is short. But we are keen to engage all stakeholders in the process so that effective and workable solutions are developed.

Baroness Andrews: My right honourable friend the Minister for Local Government has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	The Government are today announcing plans for a new national, high-quality spatial address infrastructure building on the work already undertaken by Ordnance Survey and local government. The aim is to provide a single national database that will be maintained through a partnership approach and a collaborative framework of address and property identifiers. This will be developed and operated by Ordnance Survey in partnership with local and central government. The joint prospectus, launched today, describes the proposal in more detail, is available on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website. The Government seek comments from interested parties by the end of June. The database, currently to be known as the National Spatial Address Infrastructure (NSAI), will support a wide range of services delivered by central and local government and the private sector.
	The infrastructure will build on local land and property gazetteers (LLPGs), the national land and property gazetteer (NLPG), the national street gazetteer, the postcode address file (PAF) and Ordnance Survey AddressPoint. NSAI will draw on the expertise of stakeholders including local authorities, Royal Mail Group plc, the Office for National Statistics and the Valuation Office Agency.
	The main partners, Ordnance Survey and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), have agreed heads of terms for the development process. A first cut of the NSAI will become available eight months after the full agreement is signed, paving the way towards a final structure after 18 months. The NSAI will initially relate to England and Wales. Longer term, the plan is to include information from Scotland and Northern Ireland to create a UK-wide infrastructure.
	Stakeholders will have a continuing input to the process via a governance process that will encourage participation at a number of different levels. This group will be chaired by a senior official at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. £2.3 million is also being made available by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister from the local e-government programme to Surrey County Council acting as lead authority for local government to enable the transfer of the NLPG database to the NSAI and to help facilitate local government's transition from one system to the other.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency: Business Plan 2005–06